


I'll Haunt You

by Blazed



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Choking, Enemies to Lovers, Love/Hate, M/M, More tags to be added, Not Beta Read, Slight Non-Consensual Touching, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22825003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blazed/pseuds/Blazed
Summary: Hubert's intuition led him to think of Byleth as a silent, masked threat, waiting for the right moment. And now with him in his grasp, he only believed his intuition even more.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	1. Intuition

**Author's Note:**

> Begins near the end of Byleth and Hubert's C support conversation.

“Like I said before, I’m not worried.” Byleth replied.

Hubert furrowed his brow. Byleth wasn’t intimidated by him at all. Whatever he could say right now, the other wouldn’t even show a reaction. Hubert thought, maybe he’s purposely trying to arise his anger, make the wrath he mentioned come out of hiding. Every other person who had witnessed his warnings felt frightened, remembered his words and followed them as he intended them to. But right now, he felt himself land into a special case, where a person showed nothing. Nothing.

Byleth stood there unfazed, his facial expression almost unreadable. He wasn’t a fool; he knew it was a warning. He knew he didn’t trust him. Byleth had a slight sense of Hubert’s intentions. He feared of anything happening to Edelgard or the Black Eagles. Hubert wasn’t fond of Byleth at the slightest.

While he may had been here for a month or so, he had started to earn their trust by helping them and the Church of Seiros. Byleth could never be cruel. He didn’t have the evil in his heart to lose himself like that. Byleth was no threat – everyone knew it by now, except Hubert. How come Hubert couldn’t let his guard down? He wanted Hubert to trust him like everyone else did. Byleth figured he needed to prove him that he was of good.

If it didn’t become apparent to them at first, now there truly was some tension between them. They were the only ones at the training grounds, and the momentary silence made the area feel suffocating to be in.

“As confident as you may be, are you truly brave as you show?” Hubert spoke, his voice lowered, quiet. He figured if he continued to underestimate Byleth, maybe he could pull something hidden out of him.

“What are you trying to do here?” Byleth asked.

Hubert chuckled. “You’re pretending to be someone you are not.”

“How are you so sure?”

Hubert smirked at him. He had a gut feeling inside. A feeling that Byleth wasn’t the savior he acted. Hubert knew that he had something up his sleeve, secretly hiding it from any prying eyes.

“Let’s just say, my intuition has never failed me before.” Hubert replied. He was always right about the way he felt towards someone. If he had suspicions about someone, he would intimidate them until they revealed their true selves. He’d make sure everybody knew. He’d make sure the person he forced to confess would feel sorry for their actions. Though he had never gone too far with his behavior, who knew when the time would come for him to take drastic measures?

“What if it does?”

“It won’t, especially when it senses people like you.”

“I want to prove myself that I’m not an enemy to you or to anyone.” Byleth countered.

Hubert chuckled again. He couldn’t be serious.

“Then why the secrecy? Why be so shallow with yourself?” Hubert spoke, “If you’re truly not a threat to us, why present yourself in such way?”

“I’m not presenting myself in any way.”

“There’s no use in trying to avoid it, professor.”

“It’s not my fault you struggle to see who I really am.”

Hubert paused.

“In time, I hope you do realize who I am and how I can help the people here.” Byleth continued, “You should trust me, since I-“

Hubert took his hand to Byleth’s neck in an instant, pressing heavily, his fingernails almost grazing at the boy’s skin. If Byleth wanted a taste of his rage, he could’ve said so. Besides, it could teach him how it isn’t good to betray and lie to anyone around here. Or to try and diminish Hubert’s own judgement and instincts.

Byleth grabbed Hubert’s wrist with his own two hands, trying to dislodge himself. He felt the pressure around his neck, the hardness of breathing in for air, his body in panic from the sudden motion. He also felt Hubert’s nails slowly digging into his skin. Byleth could only just look at him, almost ask him ‘why are you doing this?’ or ‘what are you gaining out of this?’.

Hubert only stood there, smiling at Byleth, seizing the pleasure of his own power. Each time a person wasn’t convinced that he could do something like this, he would prove them wrong. And every time it happened it became more satisfying to see them squirming in fear. Hubert could sense a hint of fear in Byleth’s eyes, how they kept staring back at him, begging him to release him.

“You still haven’t answered one question–are you truly brave as you show?” He leaned in closer to him, whispering the words to him.

Byleth gasped for air. He felt his veins could burst at any moment. He couldn’t respond, only stare at Hubert, how he was waiting for him to answer, dumbfounded, as if he wasn’t choking him right now.

“Say something, professor.” He saw Byleth’s face slowly showing a hint of red, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. His hands were holding on to his wrist so tightly, Hubert could feel the pain in his wrist. The more he held Byleth by the neck, the harder he gripped his wrist, like a signal to stop, let him go, leave him be. If he didn’t portray his confidence in such a way, maybe Hubert wouldn’t have done something like this.

Ever since he showed up at the academy, he instantly noticed Byleth’s blank expression, silent responses and vague gestures. Him becoming a professor out of the blue, and with the approval of the one’s in charge, Hubert questioned it. He doubted that Byleth was of any good here. He doubted his need of helping their house. His intuition led him to think of Byleth as a silent, masked threat, waiting for the right moment. And now with him in his grasp, he only believed his intuition even more. Byleth looked so defenseless, fragile, easy to ruin.

Hubert thought about how the desperation kicks in once someone knows your true intentions. Like an abyss–no chance of going back up to the only gap of light you see above. Once someone knows the terrors you’re planning, it becomes disparaging, meaningless. The only thing a person like that could do is accept their defeat. A defeat in a brutal way, making them realize they were wrong all along.

Hubert’s smirk faded away by now, he only held the gaze with Byleth. He felt like he could look at him like that forever.

But he released his hand from the boy’s neck. Byleth fell down on the ground, coughing, his lungs finally receiving what they’ve been needing so immensely. Byleth could see blurred specs of white still lingering around in his vision. He was bewildered. He couldn’t finish what he wanted to say. How can a person come to such assumptions, barely knowing them? All because of intuition? No one would incite such violence by pure intuition. No one should do that to begin with.

Byleth touched his neck, the painful warmth of Hubert’s hand still present. He then felt the marks of his nails indented into his skin–hopefully, soon to be gone. Byleth didn’t know if he was supposed to feel guilty for standing his ground, trying to prove that he wasn’t what Hubert thought. Now, he was on the ground, his left hand holding him on the dirt of the tiles. Byleth looked up to the man above. Hubert had held his stare at him, glooming over Byleth like a statue, silent and still, with a face of stone.

“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, professor.”

He then turned from Byleth and made his way out of the training grounds, leaving him there on his knees. Byleth watched him do so, with his hand still faintly placed on the slowly appearing red on his neck.


	2. Confusion

The mark was still visible on his neck. Looking at himself in the mirror made him slightly nervous about the upcoming lecture. He couldn’t walk out like this, everybody would instantly question it, try to figure out what happened. Byleth couldn’t tell them even if he really wanted to, it was something that he needed to resolve himself without anyone else interfering. If they did find out what had happened, not only would it make everyone dislike Hubert, it would worsen the situation between him and Hubert. And Byleth had a feeling that Hubert could cross the line if the situation got worse. Now that he knew how Hubert behaved, he needed to be very careful with his words and actions, otherwise they would be misinterpreted. The words he chose yesterday could’ve been more thought out, but he was caught off guard so suddenly, he didn’t quite know what else to say.

Byleth sighed. He’ll worry about it later. Class was going to start soon, and he had to be there. He had to wear different clothing for the lectures. And the clothing he had been given didn’t have a long enough collar to fully cover up the mark. His previous outfit had been ruined at a battle he went with the students a few weeks back. Somehow, parts of the robe had ripped while in a forest, either hiding from or fighting against enemies. Byleth was slightly ticked off by it, since he was grown accustomed to his original wear. However, there was no point in complaining about it now. He had to find some way to cover the red on his neck.

He had a scarf he brought from home, tucked away in a drawer along with the rest of his clothes. It was a black scarf for the winter season, but with the spring coming closer to its end, Byleth really didn’t have much of a choice. He wrapped the cloth around the red, then double checked if the ends of it stayed in place. He couldn’t lie, he felt a bit scared by the thought of the scarf untangling itself during the day, or the thought of people seeing him with it during such weather. Nevertheless, he had to keep his composure and go with the day as he’d usually do. Breathe in, then breathe out.

He grabbed one of his journals where he’d write down notes of the core topics and began making his way to the classroom. The weather was warm, no sign of a wind. Byleth could start to feel the heat shaping under the scarf. The restlessness in his gut began to slowly make itself present. So far, nobody had batted an eye at his questionable scarf. The whole walk Byleth kept glancing at people, wondering if they would judge him, question him. And thankfully, nobody seemed to care.

Byleth walked into the classroom and noticed several of the students already there, talking. When they saw him, they greeted him with a ‘good morning, professor’. Byleth nodded back to the students and rushed to his desk, setting down his journal on top. He instinctively looked up. The first thing he noticed was Hubert sitting at his own desk, his eyes glued onto Byleth, watching his every move. Byleth could feel a faint shiver slowly run down his spine, but he didn’t feel any sort of fear just yet. It was almost as if Hubert wanted him to fear him. Byleth then turned his head to his journal, flipping through the pages. Hubert really stuck with his words.

Byleth had a few minutes for himself. While he was still going through the pages, Dorothea and Edelgard had approached him.

“Professor,” Dorothea spoke up. “I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but why the scarf?”

Byleth froze in his place momentarily before looking up at the two girls standing behind the desk. He felt a loss of words at first, then figured he might make an excuse as to why he’s wearing it.

“It’s a little bit chilly today.”

“It’s Harpstring Moon.” Edelgard said, blinking twice at Byleth.

“I was about to say that, it’s really warm today.” Dorothea added. “Do you have a cold, professor?”

In the corner of his eye, he could feel Hubert watching the conversation. He sat there, his arms crossed, a faint smile on his lips, staring at the boy’s attempts of thinking of excuses to hide Hubert’s marks. He was thinking of how Byleth will respond, or if he will even mention yesterday’s incident. Hubert found it almost entertaining.

Byleth cleared his throat. “I guess I do. I’m not completely sure.”

“Oh?” Edelgard responded. “Most people rarely get a cold during this heat...”

“Whatever the case, you should’ve told us beforehand and stayed in your room, professor.” Dorothea added again. “You don’t want to take the risk and make the cold get worse; you know!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Still, you should take care of yourself, professor.” Dorothea smiled, and Edelgard nodded to what she said.

The two girls then made their way to their desks, getting ready for the class to start. Byleth sighed. He couldn’t help but turn to Hubert’s direction. Byleth felt self-conscious of his own movements, uncomfortable to do anything properly. He looked back to his journal again, flipping the pages once more, pretending as if he was memorizing what to say once the lecture started. He had to go through with it, somehow.

A few hours later, the lesson finished. To Byleth, time had never gone so slowly before. It seemed like he was standing there next to the blackboard, his mouth spewing whatever he wrote in his journal, the whole day. His mind was slightly fatigued from it, even though he was supposed to be used to this. Byleth didn’t how to describe it. The students had paid attention to when he was teaching, which he didn’t mind that at all, though he guessed they might’ve noticed him being tense and scatter-brained. Though, what Byleth mostly found troublesome was one student in particular, who didn’t focus on his teaching, but _him_ specifically.

The rest of the students went off their own ways as soon as the lesson ended. At first, some chatter, then a few moments later, silence. Byleth took his journal and was about to leave himself, until he stopped and saw Hubert standing before him, that same smirk from yesterday plastered on his face.

“A cold, hm?” He spoke up. “That was quite the excuse.”

Byleth didn’t say anything to him. He just waited until he would stop talking.

“You made yourself out to be a very courageous man with your words yesterday,” He continued. “But now, you couldn’t even tell the truth. They were so worried about you.”

Byleth tried not to care about what he had to say.

“Did I make you ill at ease? Disturbed?”

Byleth could feel his heart beating a bit faster.

“If I had done something wrong, you should’ve told so.”

He knew he was only mocking him. That’s all it was.

“Come to think of it, you are supposed to teach your students, professor...”

He was only mocking him.

“...not think about me.”

He was doing this on purpose.

“I assume you will do better tomorrow. Wouldn’t want you to be a let-down to the academy, or worse, a liar.” Hubert finished and began his way towards the exit. “See you tomorrow, professor.”

As soon as he left the room, Byleth felt at ease. The unpleasant atmosphere shifted into a calming one, leaving Byleth alone with his thoughts. He stood there for a moment, looking at the door of the classroom, just so he could go back to the dorms with no sign of the other. He had to fix the matter at hand before it went on for too long. Not knowing the exact details of Hubert’s plan was frightening to him, to say the least. If Byleth did anything extreme, he wouldn’t figure out how to deal with the consequences. All he did know was that Hubert was trying to turn him into something he was not, with the help of intimidation. And if Hubert did succeed with it, who knows how the Black Eagles would react.

Byleth made his way back to his room, his thoughts clouded with the predicament. He placed his journal back into the drawer. He sat down on his bed. Byleth figured he had to be truthful. Maybe, just maybe, he could talk to Hubert once again and try to resolve the situation. At the same time, what if Hubert chose to play his little game? Mocking Byleth, belittling him and spewing non-sense, turning him into a shell of his own. And what if he consorted with violence? What if he wounded him again? Placed his hand on his neck? Just the thought of it made Byleth almost feel the pain in that area. He didn’t want it to happen, but did he have any other reasonable choice?

He had to talk to him.

Byleth remembered where Hubert’s room was. One time, he had to meet Edelgard, who was coincidently there. He didn’t quite know the reason as to why she was standing next to the door of Hubert’s room – that’s all up to assumption. It took Byleth a walk, but there he was. Byleth knocked a few times on his door. It took a few seconds before it opened.

Hubert stepped half-way out of the door. He was genuinely surprised to see Byleth turning up to his room. He didn’t quite know how to react to his sudden appearance. At first, Hubert thought to smirk and make a comment just to see how he would react, but now, he was curious to know what lead him here.

“Professor?” He said, slightly furrowing his brow.

“We need to talk.”

Hubert widened his eyes. He wanted to ask, but then it was apparent as to why he was here. Byleth wanted to try and reach middle ground with him. Now, Hubert was even more curious to see how this whole situation would go. He moved aside to let Byleth inside his room. Byleth let himself in.

“I’m listening.” Hubert said, crossing his arms, interested in what kind of meaningless, sugarcoated sentences he would spew.

“Why are you doing this?” Byleth spoke. His voice seemed faintly shaky. Byleth felt a little bit nervous as to how this will pan out.

“Doing what?”

“Daunting me, trying to make me the enemy, when I’m not.”

“You are, professor.” Hubert said, “You are hiding something from us.”

“I’m not hiding anything.”

Hubert couldn’t help but huff a laugh out. “Then I ask again, why try to appear so mysterious?”

Byleth felt himself get annoyed at Hubert. “That’s how I normally am.”

“Oh, really? As if I were to believe that.”

“Why can’t you believe me?”

“You show up after giving the leaders of the houses a helping hand, and then proceed to receive the approval of Lady Rhea herself. That doesn’t sit well with me.”

“So, I’m to blame for helping them?”

“It takes a lot of dedication and practice to fool so many people.” Hubert smiled menacingly.

“Hubert, I’m trying to find the reason as to why you’re so fixated on wanting to see me suffer.”

Hubert didn’t respond. There was a short silence between them.

“I understand if it’s because of Edelgard, but there are-“

“She doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Hubert retorted.

“You fear of anything bad happening to her.”

“Shut your goddamn mouth.”

Byleth took a step back from Hubert, hearing the sternness in his voice. If somebody was next-door, they’ve probably heard it clearly. Byleth figured he shouldn’t had said that, but was there really another way to resolve their conflict? It felt obvious that that was why Hubert resorted to the act of yesterday.

“It’s not about Edelgard. You shouldn’t even mention her name.” Hubert glared at the boy, who had slowly inched himself back.

“Then why did you approach me yesterday?” Byleth spoke calmly, trying to lessen the intensity of the argument. “Why did you grab me by the neck? Was it not because of her?”

“I told you to shut your mouth.”

“What was the reason for all of it?”

Hubert kept his glare at him. He stood in his place for a second, before proceeding to approach the boy, slowly.

“You really crave for a reason, do you?” He said, his voice quiet as it was the day before.

Byleth wanted to step back from him, but he bumped into the desk behind him. He could feel Hubert drawing nearer to him. Did he go too far?

“Ever since you appeared, you’ve been quite the favorite.”

Byleth blinked. What did he mean?

“I truly wonder why everybody is so captivated by you.”

“What are you-“

“Is that how you have your way?”

“Hubert, enough. I already told you I am not hiding anything.”

Hubert stopped. There was a small gap between the two. The same deafening silence reappeared from yesterday, along with the suffocating presence. To Byleth, it seemed as if Hubert’s hands were on his neck again, but they weren’t. Maybe it was just Byleth remembering yesterday, thinking that it might happen today. Or tomorrow. Hubert didn’t do anything right now, but it felt like he did. Strangely, Byleth couldn’t figure out if Hubert was truly angry at him. That is, his eyes didn’t show it to him. They just stared at him, for what seemed like a long time.

Hubert’s hand went up to Byleth’s scarf. He unwrapped it from his neck. Byleth shivered from his neck being exposed to the one that caused the mark. The scarf fell on to the wooden floor. Slowly, Hubert’s fingers made their way up to his neck. He didn’t touch it, only hovered over the red. Byleth could hear his heart beating rapidly in his ears, his breathing getting deeper. His heart hoped that he wouldn’t do it again. Byleth swallowed from the sheer anxiety. Hubert noticed how Byleth’s Adam’s apple moved its way up, then down. He eyed it for a moment longer, before gently brushing his fingers on the neck.

Byleth gasped from the touch. His mind was confused. What was Hubert doing? Was he going to hurt his neck again? If so, then why was he being gentle? Hubert brushed his thumb against Byleth’s apple, then it went over to the nail marks. In the indents, it was pale red. If he had gone further, he would’ve broken the skin. He then placed his full hand on the side of the neck. He looked up at Byleth to see his reaction. He seemed to be in fear. His eyes were begging to let him go, just like they did before.

Byleth couldn’t bear to go through this false fear. It seemed like Hubert chained him in place, forcing him not to move. He had to resist. Even if Hubert didn’t intend on doing it, Byleth still had to be careful. He pushed Hubert away. He didn’t stay there for a moment longer. He ran out of the room, back to his own.

Hubert only stood there, watching him go.


End file.
